


New year, new life

by FiresideGuitar (Defy_them)



Series: Jumping into the timejump [5]
Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Family, Fluff, Look I know that the world isn’t going to magically fix itself when the clock strikes midnight, Missing Scene, New Year’s Eve, One-Shot, Stargazing, but this was a lovely reason to write some fluff to finish off the year, so yeah hope you enjoy, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28459899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Defy_them/pseuds/FiresideGuitar
Summary: Ellie, Dina and little baby JJ spend their first New Year’s Eve together.Finish your year by reading a fic that's absolutely stuffed with fluff. You know you want to...
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Series: Jumping into the timejump [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1910350
Comments: 26
Kudos: 77





	New year, new life

**Author's Note:**

> It’ll be handy if you can have [this map](https://www.constellation-guide.com/seasonal-constellations/winter-constellations/) open as you read this fic :)

“Five years of this, and I still don’t understand the appeal.”

Ellie stretched out on the blanket they were using to cover the frozen ground and wiggled her toes inside her boots — the boots that Dina insisted she wear while they were outside. Ellie had to agree that it was the right choice, because despite the snow piled up around them, her feet were warm.

“Really? I think they’re kinda pretty.”

They were sitting out the front of the farmhouse, a few feet away from the porch steps. Granted, it was a strange spot to have a late-night picnic. But, apart from sitting on the roof, which Dina vehemently vetoed the second that Ellie had suggested it, this was the one place that they could see Jackson.

Well, not Jackson proper. Their farm was almost an hour away on horseback, and the various hills and valleys that one had to cross to travel between the two meant that there was no way to see the thriving town itself. But their current angle allowed them a good view of the airspace above their former home.

Normally, it would be a patch of night sky like any other. But tonight, right as the clock in their living room with its obnoxiously loud ticks passed midnight, that bit of sky was lit up with all the colours of the rainbow.

“A pretty big waste of gunpowder, you mean,” Ellie grumbled. “Plus, they’re probably attracting every infected within a five mile radius right to them,” she added, pulling her jacket tighter around herself. The move was more so she would have something to do, rather than being cold. In addition to her leather boots, she was dressed in all of her winter gear, and was also buried under essentially every blanket that they owned. There wasn’t a single part of Ellie that wasn’t nice and warm.

If anything, she was getting a bit _too_ toasty, thanks to her own personal hot water bottle. As she tugged on her outer jacket, she heard a soft burble of protest coming from her chest.

“See? JJ agrees with me,” Ellie stated, ducking her head to brush a light kiss against the two-week-old baby’s beanie that was just visible under all of her clothes.

Dina had had considerable difficulty moving around during the last month or so of her pregnancy. So much so, that she had easily overthrown Ellie’s claim to the title of ‘couch potato’, and spent the majority of November on their sofa. Of course, Dina being Dina, even as her body was lagging behind, her mind had still been sharp as ever. Her hands still needed to always be occupied, so Dina ended up tinkering with every device within her reach, as well as knitting enough clothes to keep half of Jackson warm.

JJ’s beanie had been the result of one of Dina’s projects. As Ellie took in the sight of their baby— 

_Our baby. God, that still sounds so surreal._

—bundled up and nestled against her chest, she couldn’t help but smile.

“Actually, that’s the idea,” Dina said beside her, cutting through her thoughts. “They always do a big sweep of the hills around Jackson the day before. That way, they can take advantage of the fireworks to draw out any stragglers.”

Dina held her hand up, pointer finger extended. “Just listen for it...there!” Dina jabbed her finger into the air right as they heard a dull popping noise that was slightly different to the others, and wasn’t preceded by a corresponding flash of light. “They just got another one,” she added with a smile.

Ellie had to agree that it was a pretty good idea. Picking off a bunch of lured infected from the safety of Jackson’s walls seemed like a great way to spend New Year’s Eve. She took a moment to resent her younger self for ignoring the festivities around Jackson to ring in the new year. She definitely would have heard about this earlier, and could have volunteered to watch for infected from the walls. That way, someone who actually _wanted_ to watch the fireworks could have done that.

Speaking of fireworks, it didn’t take long for Dina to resume the conversation. “And besides, it’s not the same type of powder anyway. They use black powder — see all the smoke? Not ideal for guns.”

Of course Dina had that bit of trivia tucked away in her head. Ellie rolled her eyes, but with good humour. She had no idea how Dina did it, but she always had that special way of explaining clever things without coming across as an insufferable know-it-all.

They had finished their food already, so Ellie reached for the thermos of tea that they had prepared for the picnic. She took a generous swig before returning it to the ground.

“Sometimes I wish that baby brain affected you more than it is,” Ellie said quietly. “It’d be nice to have you on my level, you know? For once.”

Ellie heard a chuckle next to her. “That sandwich I made this morning was pretty bad.”

“What? The one with the knife in the middle of it? I just thought that you were mad at me.”

“I wasn’t! I just honestly forgot that I had left it in there. I thought I was going crazy when I went to wash up and couldn’t find it in the sink.”

Ellie smiled and glanced over at Dina, who was still enthralled by the fireworks display. She looked so beautiful as her glistening eyes reflected the lights, and Ellie couldn’t help but lean over and give her a kiss.

Dina hummed in content when they eventually parted. “Seriously, I didn’t mean to put homicidal sandwiches on the menu for our triumphant return.” She paused. “Are you okay?”

Ellie pressed her lips together. She knew what Dina was really asking, but wanted to stay in the light moment for just a bit longer. “It was a ferocious battle. The butter put up a good fight, but I eventually came out on top. There were no survivors.”

“My hero,” Dina said with a smirk. But then she gave Ellie that look that meant she wasn’t going to get off the hook so easily. “Are you okay?” she repeated gently, glancing meaningfully towards the fireworks.

They hadn’t had exact dates for anything, but they had known that Dina would probably be due in December. So, at the start of the month, they had packed a bag and left the farmhouse for Jackson. It ended up being good timing: JJ had arrived a couple of weeks later. They would have spent more than two weeks in Jackson afterwards, but then Ellie had— 

“I’m fine.”

“El…”

“It...it was just a one-off. I know it was.” Ellie looked down in shame. But now that Dina brought it up, it was like an unwelcome guest had arrived at their formerly peaceful picnic. Ellie knew there was only one way to get rid of them now.

“I’m sorry. I know we wanted to stay in Jackson for longer. I’m the worst.”

“You have to stop saying things like that.”

“You didn’t disagree...Interesting.”

“Ellie, please.”

“I know we came back here because of me.”

“Yeah. And?” Dina asked, continuing to look at her in that endlessly patient way of hers.

“And? Aren’t you sick of it? Sick of me?”

“Never.”

Dina scooted closer to Ellie on the blanket and rested her head on her shoulder. It was a bit of an odd angle with all of the blankets piled up around them, and Ellie’s arms supporting JJ in her zipped-up hoodie, but Dina still managed to wrap both of them in a hug.

“Ellie, I’ll never be sick of you. But yesterday...you _did_ scare me a bit.”

They had been staying at Dina’s house while they were in Jackson. JJ didn’t sleep much, and when he did, it tended to only be in fifteen minute stints. As new and exhausted parents, they had quickly learned to take all opportunities to catch up on their sleep deprivation.

Dina had been napping with JJ on the couch while Ellie quietly did the dishes on the other side of the house. That was when she had accidentally dropped a stupid saucepan on the tiled floor. The loud noise not only woke up JJ and Dina, but threw her head-first into a flashback and panic attack.

Ellie shivered at the memory, despite the warmth of Dina’s embrace. She still had nightmares, of course, but it had been a while since a full-on episode like that. And with JJ screaming his tiny lungs out, Dina had to juggle calming him down while also pulling Ellie out of her own head.

The small mercy was that at least Jesse’s parents weren’t around when it had happened. They had been understanding and supportive of the woman having their son’s child and her girlfriend, of course. But Ellie knew how badly the couple had wanted them to stay in Jackson permanently. It pained her to be the reason that the three of them had up and fled so soon after JJ was born.

“I would have been fine if we had stayed in Jackson for the fireworks. Yesterday just...just caught me by surprise,” Ellie tried, but a quiver in her voice betrayed her.

Dina continued to gaze at her evenly. The night was silent apart from the quiet pops of the fireworks as they continued in the distance. The time between them was getting shorter, indicating that the show was nearing its grand finale.

“Maybe, but maybe not,” Dina replied, eventually. “I’m done taking unnecessary risks. You know that.”

Ellie sighed, but nodded.

“Besides,” Dina continued, “I don’t think JJ would have enjoyed them much either.”

Ellie smiled. It was always easier to talk about JJ. “He doesn’t seem very impressed, does he?”

“Not impressed at all,” Dina agreed with a chuckle. “Your ratty hoodie is apparently much more interesting.” She reached out and ran a hand over the lump in Ellie’s clothing that was their son. “You look like I did a month ago.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what you were complaining about. This is easy.”

“You’re an ass. How is he?”

JJ had been quiet for the whole picnic, so he was probably due for a cry any time now. And, right on cue, he started squirming under Dina’s hand.

“Uh oh. What is it this time, little man?” Ellie asked as his tiny hands grasped at her clothes. She brushed Dina’s hand away so she could unzip her hoodie as he started to fuss and cry.

They were still figuring out which ear-splitting cry meant what. It was still more of a guessing game at this point. But the way he was turning his head and trying to nuzzle into Ellie’s chest was unmistakable.

“Oops. Wrong mom, bud. I don’t have anything for you,” Ellie said, gently lifting him up and handing him over to Dina. They rearranged themselves on the blanket so that Ellie was supporting Dina’s back as she shed some layers to nurse JJ. Once he latched on, Ellie tucked the blankets around all three of them so they were in a little cocoon of warmth.

Dina sighed and dropped her head back on Ellie’s shoulder. “He is _such_ a boob guy, isn’t he?”

Ellie pressed a kiss into her forehead. “A boob guy with a knack for terrible timing. You missed the end of the fireworks.”

Dina looked up in Jackson’s direction with surprise. JJ’s wails had masked the final crescendo of the muted bangs, and now the night sky had already returned to its usual inky blackness. “Fuck. Guess we’ll have to wait until next year now.”

Ellie blinked. She had always been the kind of person who didn’t organise things more than a few days in advance. She still hadn’t gotten her head around the way that Dina could casually make such long-term plans. “Yeah, I guess. _Or,_ we could see the light show that nature gives us for free every night.”

Dina groaned and lightly headbutted her shoulder. “The stars again? Must be the sleep deprivation talking, but that actually sounds like a nice idea.”

“Yes!” Ellie exclaimed, barely able to contain her excitement. “You know how much I love the winter constellations.”

“All I know is how much I’m already regretting this decision,” Dina said with a smirk. “Give me a hand, will you?”

Ellie scooted out from behind Dina to rearrange their pile of blankets yet again. With Dina’s arms busy supporting JJ, Ellie gently lowered her so she was lying back, a generous supply of blankets propping up her head and torso. Ellie could see Dina slightly adjust her hold of JJ under the blankets so he could continue to drink quietly.

“Comfy?” Ellie asked. Upon receiving a confirmatory nod, she shuffled herself around and flopped on the ground next to Dina, and drew up the rest of the blankets to cover all three of them.

“So. Where’s Carina tonight?”

Ellie smiled. When she first took Dina out stargazing, it hadn’t taken her long to figure out that Ellie had pet constellations for each person in her life. But as far as Dina knew, the justification for her constellation was simply that it rhymed with her name.

“There,” Ellie said, pointing slightly above the horizon. “She heard you talking about her and decided to show up.”

The comment earned a chuckle from her girlfriend.

“Do you know what Carina means?”

Dina shook her head.

“It’s Latin for keel. Like, the keel of a ship.” Ellie paused, realising that Dina would have no idea what that was. Ellie herself only knew it because of the constellation. “Um. Like the steering wheel of a ship.”

“Ah, right. So are you saying that this one’s mine because I drive you crazy?”

“How did you know?” Ellie said with a laugh. She lightly bumped Dina’s shoulder with her own, but kept her gaze on the sky above them. “It’s actually because...you’re my keel. Like, you keep me steady and on-course.”

She heard a sigh from beside her. “You’re so cheesy.”

“It’s true!”

“True, cheesy, and very off-brand for a hunter, I must say.”

Ellie’s cheeks coloured. She lifted her gaze until she spotted her own constellation, Orion. This was one that she didn’t need to point out to Dina — her girlfriend was well-versed in the process of looking for the hunter’s belt to identify the large constellation.

“I was thinking about that, actually.” Ellie stuck her arm out straight in front of her, spreading her fingers until she could reach Orion with her thumb and Carina with her pinky. “We’re too far away from each other.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Since this is my game, I get to make the rules. And I say I get two constellations.” Ellie looked down to find Carina again, then shifted her focus to the right. “Pictor,” she said breathily, using her finger to trace the small constellation directly beside Dina’s. “The painter.”

Dina scooted closer, and Ellie felt her nuzzle the side of her face. “The painter? I like that one much better.” She paused. “Do you still need to hang onto Orion?”

Ellie pursed her lips. Again, she knew what Dina was really asking. But this time, she didn’t have a good answer for her. “I…” Ellie trailed off, uncertain. “I like that it’s close to Camelopardalis.”

“Gesundheit.”

“Ass.”

Dina chuckled again. “Sorry. I’m not even going to try to say that one, but where is it?”

Ellie redirected her gaze to the opposite horizon with a frown. “Start at Orion’s club and keep going up. But you can’t really see it right now. It’ll be better in March.”

“Damn. Well okay then, what does the name mean?”

“This one’s Greek. The name’s kind of funny, actually.”

“My sides are ready to be split,” Dina replied drily.

“Do you want me to explain or not?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Ellie saw Dina lift a hand towards her face. She pinched her thumb and index finger together and mimed a zip crossing her lips.

“Okay, Camelopardalis,” Ellie started, repeating the name slowly this time. “It’s an animal. And it’s in the name — think camel plus leopard.”

“Sounds like a crime against nature.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “Not literally, doofus. Like, the body of a camel and the pattern of a leopard. Does that help?”

“It’s kinda hard when I haven’t seen either of those animals in real life.”

“You are impossible,” Ellie said with a sigh. “It’s a giraffe, okay?”

“Oh.”

Dina went quiet, the light moment dissipating into the cold night along with their clouded breaths. Wordlessly, she sought out Ellie’s hand under the blankets, squeezing tightly once she found one.

Ellie inhaled and finally tore her gaze away from the sky. When she looked over at Dina, she could see fresh tears in her eyes.

“Sorry,” Dina whispered as she continued to look up at the stars.

Ellie followed Dina’s gaze, and saw that she was looking at Ellie’s constellation again.

“I don’t think I can let him go.”

Both of them knew that Ellie wasn’t talking about Orion.

\---

Ellie lost track of time as they lay there quietly, looking up at the sky. But eventually, she noticed that the gentle sucking sounds that had been constantly in the background had stopped. She squeezed Dina’s hand.

“Sounds like someone’s done,” Ellie murmured.

“A very satisfied customer.”

“Is he asleep?”

“Yeah.” Dina lolled her head to the side to look at Ellie. “Have you picked one out for him yet?”

Ellie scanned the sky, considering her mental shortlist carefully. “I’ve narrowed it down a bit. I was thinking maybe Crux? It’s the smallest of all the constellations.”

Dina sniffed. “That’s sweet. What does it look like?”

“A cross. Can’t miss it...but it’s one of the spring ones. We’re still a few months off seeing it.”

“Oh, that’s a shame.”

Ellie smiled. “I can’t help but be biased towards the winter ones. Like, the nights are so long right now, clearly the universe wants us to look at it...anyway, another one I was thinking of was Columba.”

“That’s one that we can see now?”

“Yeah. Right...there,” Ellie said, tracing the constellation in the sky.

“I like that one. It’s near you and me. Well, painter-you anyway.”

Ellie hummed her agreement. “I like it too. And it’s a dove, which is pretty cool.”

“A dove?”

“Yeah. From the story about that Noah guy? I dunno, you’d know it better than me.”

Dina nodded. “It’s a symbol for peace. And after the flood, it showed that the earth was ready for new life.”

“New year...new life...sounds kinda nice.”

“It does.”

They went quiet again. Ellie continued to scan the sky. It looked the same as it always did. And yet, whenever she stargazed with Dina, it was like there was a whole new meaning to every star, every constellation, every galaxy. It was like there was a secret way of looking at the world, but it was only available when Dina was near.

There was probably a cool song lyric in there somewhere, if Ellie just thought about it for a bit longer. But just for now, she let the thought go. She watched it spiral up, dissipating into relative meaninglessness compared to the infinite expanse above them.

\---

This time, Dina was the one to break the silence.

“Why were astronomers so obsessed with naming things?”

Ellie took a moment to return her brain to conversation mode. “Uh...I dunno. They didn’t have video games, so I guess they needed some way to keep themselves entertained.”

Dina laughed. “Do you wish that _you_ had named them?”

Ellie turned on her side so she was facing Dina directly. “Duh. I mean, they did take a lot of creative license for some of these. I could’ve done _way_ better. Like...do you remember when I showed you Leo last year?”

Dina twisted her lips in thought. “I think so? Oh yeah! It was that clothes iron one, wasn’t it?”

Ellie grinned. “Exactly! Lion my ass.”

“Alright, go on then. You’re an...intergalactic traveller who has just landed on a new planet.” Dina stretched her arms out to paint the picture of the scenario in the sky above them. “You look up, and you see the stars arranged in a way that no human has ever seen before.”

Ellie smiled at the thought. She loved everything about space, but it sometimes frustrated her that one of the only ways of appreciating it was learning about these constellations. It sometimes felt like an annoying reminder of how earthbound she was. But travelling to a whole new planet and seeing a whole new sky of constellations? Well, it would be incredible to see that. Maybe...one day…

“So?”

Ellie blinked. She hadn’t realised that she wasn’t paying attention for a moment. “Sorry, what?”

Dina rolled her eyes, but repeated the question for her. “You’ve found a constellation. What do you name it?”

“Well, what does it look like?”

“Whatever you want it to look like.”

“That’s not how the universe works.”

“Maybe. But this _is_ how my game works. _My_ game, _I_ get to make the rules,” Dina replied, humour layered into her voice. “Come on, what have you got?”

Ellie rolled onto her back again and looked up. She furrowed her brows in concentration as she imagined rearranging some of the stars directly above her. “Well...since I’m still not a hundred percent decided on JJ’s constellation, maybe he can have first pick for the celestial sphere of Planet Ellie.”

“I don’t recall saying that you could name the _planet_.”

Just then, JJ burbled in his sleep. They paused for a moment, waiting to see if he was about to wake up. But the lump under the blanket just shifted slightly, then stilled again as he continued to doze.

Dina smiled. “See? This time, JJ agrees with me.”

“Traitor,” Ellie grumbled. “He doesn’t deserve a constellation anymore.”

“That might be for the best. You’re terrible at naming things.”

“Am not!” Ellie said indignantly, keeping her voice low to not disturb JJ. “I named him, didn’t I?”

“That was a collaborative effort.”

Ellie grumbled some more, but Dina was telling the truth. Once they saw that he was a boy, it was a no-brainer to name him after the two most important men in both of their lives. It was easy to see Jesse in him, of course. But Ellie was very much planning on teaching her son all about the gruff Texan who was behind his other first name.

Dina shuffled closer to Ellie — so close that the whole sides of their bodies were in contact with each other. “Tell me more about the stars,” Dina requested quietly, “I know you want to.”

Ellie looped her arm around Dina’s back and tucked Dina’s head against her shoulder. The position gave Ellie two benefits: one, that she could give Dina a decent hug, considering the awkward way that they were bundled up in all of their blankets; and two, that she could also lay her other hand next to JJ’s sleeping form and feel the gentle puffs of air as he breathed in and out.

Of course, the downside was that now Ellie’s hands were otherwise occupied, and she couldn’t point at the sky above them. Still, she dutifully worked her way around the constellations above them, recounting tales of the Argo Navis ship, the bull-headed Taurus (which was Tommy’s constellation, of course), the rabbit, the clock, the table…

When she finally ran out of stories, Ellie looked down at her girlfriend. At some point, Dina had fallen asleep, and was breathing deeply in perfect sync with their son. The corner of Ellie’s mouth quirked up with a smile. As her increasingly heavy eyelids would attest, she could easily have joined Dina in her slumber. But Ellie also knew that the strange sleeping conditions meant that they were going to wake up with horrendously sore backs.

Still, she wanted to be gentle with her wake-up call, so Ellie ducked her head and brushed a kiss against Dina’s temple. “Wake up sleepy mama,” she murmured as Dina started to stir in her arms. “Time for bed. An actual bed.”

“Five more minutes,” Dina grumbled, cracking her eyes open slightly to peer at Ellie through her eyelashes.

Ellie smiled — she knew how to play this game. She waited for Dina’s eyes to flutter shut, then kissed her again. “Alright, it’s been five minutes.”

“You little liar,” Dina moaned, but begrudgingly opened her eyes properly.

“There’s no reason to be out here anymore. The fireworks finished,” Ellie reminded her quietly.

“There are _plenty_ of reasons to be out here.”

“Well, yeah. You were _meant_ to be looking at the stars.”

Dina’s eyes stayed fixed on Ellie’s face. She leaned in for one more kiss, then resumed her steady gaze. Ellie got the feeling that a meteor shower could have been happening right above their heads, and Dina’s eyes would have remained on her. 

“Oh Ellie...” she breathed, reaching up to tuck a loose bit of hair behind her ear, “...I _am_ looking at the stars.”

**Author's Note:**

> The idea of this fic was inspired by [this recent text post](https://martymulder.tumblr.com/post/638176114938953728/i-like-to-imagine-ellie-and-dina-laying-in-a-field), as well as work from [DissonantDreams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DissonantDreams/pseuds/DissonantDreams), especially [this one](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25945414).
> 
> Happy new year to you all. Depending on your time zone, I hope that reading this was a nice way to finish off the year, or start the next one :)


End file.
